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Invader Zim (TV series)
Invader ZIM Invader Zim, branded as Invader ZIM, is an American animated television series that was produced by and subsequently aired on Nickelodeon. The series is centered around an egotistical, clueless Irken invader named Zim who is constantly (and futilely) attempting to conquer and/or destroy a dark and satirical version of Earth at some point in the future. Zim's schemes are usually foiled by his enemy Dib. Dib is a paranormal enthusiast who cares about saving humanity and seems to be the only person aware of Zim's intentions (unfortunately, he seems to be the only intelligent person in his grade, as everyone else is duped by Zim's transparent claims of being human). The show has no clear distinction of a protagonist (hero) or antagonist (villain); however, had the series continued, the outline of Top of the Line suggests that Tak would have become a recurring villain. First broadcast on March 30, 2001, Nickelodeon had desired a show for their older demographic when Invader Zim was greenlighted. Nickelodeon promoted Invader Zim for this purpose to much critical acclaim, but did not provide a consistent time slot that the creators of the program thought suitable for the demographic. It was intended for audiences in their early teens, but was instead viewed more by older audiences, usually aged 14-18. The show also received multiple complaints from concerned parents due to its relatively macabre themes and black comedy, most notably from Christian Parenting Today, which labeled it as "non-Christian", "immoral", and "insulting towards Christian values and beliefs". Consequently, the show suffered in the ratings after an initially lukewarm viewership. When it was obvious that Nickelodeon would drop the show, the crew requested that Invader Zim be moved to MTV as Ren and Stimpy had been, but this did not occur even after the show entered syndication. Before the second season was completed, Nickelodeon canceled the series, leaving at least seven episodes and a planned television movie series finale unfinished. Like most other Nickelodeon cartoons, it is 2D. The animation style was updated and improved in Season 2. At times, the animation is semi-3D. This is most often seen in the episode Battle of the Planets. Because of its continued fan base and above average DVD sales since series production ended, various observers have labeled Invader Zim a cult hit. The show completed its run in European and South American territories normally, and can currently be seen in syndication on Nicktoons Network, which started airing the completed season two episodes in Summer 2006. In Canada, YTV began airing the series on its Bionix programming block on September 8, 2006. The Invader Zim DVD collection has been released by Media Blasters in North America. The series has also been translated into several different languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Japanese) for foreign broadcast in more recent times. Reruns returned to the Nicktoons Network on September 8, 2008. In March of 2010, Invader Zim returned to Nicktoons Network for one month. This, of course, brought forth rumors from fans, who believed that Nickelodeon was testing the fanbase to see how many people would watch Nicktoons just for Invader Zim, and that they might bring the show back if the results are favorable. And, as of June 17, 2010, Nickelodeon has officially announced Invader ZIM is coming back for good on Nicktoons Network. The show will start airing again for the fourth time on Monday, June 21, 2010 at 4:30 EST. The first week continued at this time, then stopped. It started up again July 5th at 10:00pm Mon.-Thur. and ended the last Thursday in July. Currently, they are showing Invader ZIM on Saturdays at 2pm EST. While old episodes of the show are airing, it is currently unknown whether new episodes will ever be made or not. It is a very complicated (and expensive) process to produce a cartoon in the first place, and as well as this, most of the original staff (including Jhonen) have implicitly stated that they wouldn't work on the show again if it was to be revived, and most of them have moved on to other projects. On the other hand, a relatively noticeable interest has been taken to the show in recent months. The show's fanbase has grown notably larger in the past year. A new DVD was released in April 2010, and reruns of the old episodes started up again during Summer 2010. There is a rumor circulating the internet that they are planning to finish Season 3 of the series by Late 2010 or the beginning of 2011. While Jhonen initially stated that he did not ever plan to continue the show, he later admitted at San Diego Comic Con 2005 that he would love to continue the show if he ever came across an animation team that he approved of. No conclusions can be drawn at this point, though, and until the aforementioned rumors are confirmed, it must still be assumed that the show will not continue. Even assuming that it did, it should be noted that the new episodes would likely be quite different from the old ones, given that the series would have a new creative team altogether, and the staff at Nickelodeon's studios would definitely have a say in whether members of the previous team could even come back or not. And it was never intended for the show to continue for very long; only 3 seasons were planned, though if the show had not been canceled, the overall success of the previous seasons might have brought the team to consider making further seasons. On another note, a group of fans are working on animating the unmade episodes of Invader Zim, as well as making their own episodes. The project (referred to as the Invader Zim Fan-Animated Series, or IZFAS) has been slow-moving so far, but there is currently a finished short up on Youtube, entitled 'The Most Horrible Short Ever'. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i66WhHxJSnU&feature=related In April of 2010 New Invader ZIM dvds came out on, http://invaderzimondvd.com/ To visit the official page on Nicktoons.com, click here: http://nicktoons.nick.com/shows/invader-zim Plot Invader Zim revolves around the life of its title character, Zim, and the humans who are aware of him. Zim is a member of the imperialistic Irken race, an extraterrestrial species whose social hierarchy is based on height. The Irken leaders, known as the Almighty Tallest, are named Purple and Red, and serve together because they are exactly the same height. As recounted during the series premiere, "The Nightmare Begins", Zim, who is both very short and very naïve, was banished to the planet Foodcourtia for overzealously attacking his own planet and allies during Operation Impending Doom I. Upon hearing of Operation Impending Doom II, he arrives at the Great Assigning. Here elite Irken soldiers are chosen to become Invaders; "special" soldiers whose mission it is to blend in with the indigenous life forms of their assigned planet, collect intelligence, and prepare the planet for conquest by the Irken Armada. Zim pleads with the Tallest to assign him a planet, and in a desperate act to get Zim as far away as possible, they assign him to a presumed planet on the outskirts of their known universe that has never been explored. This "Mystery Planet" is Earth, and Zim's erratic attempts at world domination and/or the eradication of the human race begin. Intro Sequence Every episode starts out with a short introduction sequence that quickly explains the plot, followed by Zim daydreaming about taking over the planet. It starts with Zim standing in front of a large crowd of Irkens with a big screen with the word "Invasion" on it. The tallest then throw Zim into his Voot Cruiser with GIR in it and send them to Earth. They then show Dib, Gaz, and GIR quickly followed by Zim covering the entire Earth in pipes/wires, then revealing that it's only a daydream. *Trivia **In the intro sequence, Zim sticks his tongue out, but it looks like a human tongue instead of his own. Unfinished Plot "Ultimately, my idea was to take his sights off world domination, as ZIM begins to understand that there is a beauty in human life, an understanding that sets him on his path to becoming a public legal defender. I was very inspired by Ben Affleck's powerful courtroom scenes in Daredevil, and I wanted to move people to tears like those scenes moved me. But the show was canceled before any of that, thus leaving our audience of ten unfulfilled." (Jhonen, speaking sarcastically) Jhonen should had made a Inavder ZIm Comic series.